Biblical Proportions

In his column for the UK Sunday Times, Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson writes: “If you were God and you were all-powerful, you wouldn’t select Bethlehem as a suitable birthplace for your only child because it’s a horrible place. And you certainly wouldn’t let him grow up anywhere in the Holy Land. What you’d actually do is choose New Zealand. New Zealand causes anyone to question the wisdom of God. Because if he really were all-knowing, children at Christmas time today would be singing ‘Oh little town of Wellington’ and people would not cease from mental fight until Jerusalem had been built in Auckland’s green and pleasant land. Jesus would have been from Palmerston North. I’m in New Zealand right now and it really is absolutely stunning; bite-the-back-of-your-hand-to-stop-yourself-from-crying-out lovely.” The BBC series Top Gear was in New Zealand filming a race from the Coromandel to the Far North between a car and a yacht.